Well-casing elevator



3 SHEETS-SHEET l.

FILED DEC. 4, 1 922.

"A TTORNEK ILL :22

vlllllll Feb: '27, 1923.

G. KRELL.

' WELL CASING ELEVATOR.

3 SHEETSSHEET 2.

FILED mac. 4. 1922.

L fij IIHL INVENTOR -A TTORN i Gd 6 III? -1 Ill/am &

' figures of reference marked thereon, which Patented Feb. 27, 1923.

4 1,446,568 PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE KRELL, OF KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI.

WELL-CASING ELEVATOR.

Application filed December 4, 1922. Serial No. 604,758.

To aZZ whom it may concern Be it known that I, Gnonen KnnLL, a citi- Zen of the United States, residing at Kansas City, in the county of Jackson. and State of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in ell-Casing Elevators; and I do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the form a part of this specification.

This invention is a continuation in part of an application filed by me on or about July 22, 1922, Serial No. 576,699 and it relates to oil well casing elevators.

The primary ObJQClZ of the invention is to provide an elevator which may be conveniently operated to cause jaws to engage and disengage the pipe with the gripping engagement of suflicient firmness to prevent slipping of the pipe or casing. 7

An important feature of the invention is that the elevator aws engage the surface of the pipe below the collar in contra-distincion. to those types of elevators which suspend the' pipe from. the collar so that the collar takes the load. Where the entire pipe or casing is suspended from the collar or one-section, the weight often is sufiicient to tear off the collar because the collar cannot sustain the load. Existing types of elevators now in general use throughout the oil fields have thisde feczt. .The objection to suspending the load from the collar will be appreciated when ,it is considered that a string of easing sometimes weighs from fiftyto sixty tons not considering friction 5 and where the elevator is so constructed that the entire load is suspended from the collar resting on the elevator, the collar frequently collapses and it is the elimination of this import-ant defect which is of prime importance. I V

In actual field operations there'ar'e certain mechanical diflic-ulties .encountered which, if not provided for, will render any elevator unsuccessful; for example, the pull on the hoisting cable is not always in line with the axis of the casing, in fact it is more frequently oil to one side, so, unless provision is made for equally holding the pipe or casing irrespective of the line of draft or pulling, there will be a tendency to put a kink in the pipe; that is, to slightly disrupt its .wall and it is an invariable rule in the oil fields that a casing section or pipe which is not perfect is immediately discarded;

Another operating condition which must be taken into account is that the casing is pulled by the cable suspended from the top of the derrick and while the oil rigging is in place. The end of thewalking beam is very close to the vertical axial line of the casing or hole although a considerable distance above it and,'indeed, when the hole is being drilled. the end of the walking beam straddlesthe hole so that thenotch for the temper screw will be practically in line with the center of the hole. When the casing is to be pulled, the walking beam is tilted so that its free end is swung in an upward direction to throw it as far away from the center of the hole as possible but the clearances are such that only a slight swinging movement is permitted and since the elevator passes the end of the walking beam either in lowering the casing or pulling it, it is apparent that the elevator must be compact, taking up little room and yet have suiiicient strength to'support the pipe because the entire weight of the casing or pipe is hung on the elevator when it is being lowered into the well or when it is being raised. The spider which holds the pipe between the elevating or lowering operation can be larger because it has a. fixed position but this is not true of the elevator on account of its up and down movement in actual -.practice.

Further, a successful elevator must be capable of taking diderent sizes of easing.

It the elevator is not capable of gripping with equal facility different diameters of casing, it would be necessary to use a different elevator on each size of casing and.

as is well known, all oil wells require different sized casings.

My invention contemplates the eliminat-ion of the afore-mentioned difiiculties and particularly in that it is'strong enough to support the heaviest known weights is comp-art, adapted to hold dii'i'erent diameters of casings, and a by nomeans unimportant feature of my invention is the provision of means for opening the jaws of the elevator so that the elevator can he slipped over the collar on the end of the casing and in order to assist in the application of the elevator to the casing and the removal therefrom I provide means for holding the co-operating jaws in position to move into casing-gripping position when the opening mechanism is released. The jaws are self-seating in that they find their own gripping positions by their own weights and after they have engaged the pipe, the supporting links or the cable ma be deviated from a vertical line in any ireetion Without affecting the uniform gripping action of the jaws.

The novel features of this invention will be understood by reference to the following descriptionin connection with the accompanying drawings, in which 'Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the upper portion of a string of casingshowing the elevator applied, the string being secured in a spider, part of the derrick and part of the walking beam as well as the calf wheel bein'g shown in-perspective.

ig.'2 is a detail perspective view of'a-n elevator constructed in accordance with my invention.

Fig. 3 isa sectional view on the line 3-3 of Fig. 7.

Fig. 4: is a sectional viewon the line 1-4 of Fig. 6.

Fig. 5' is a sectional view on the line 55 ofF ig'. 4.

Referring now to thedrawings by numer als of reference:

1 designates the derrick which may be of usual construction. The top of the derrick may support a tackle consisting of the cable 2, the block 3 and the hook 4, the cable being raised and lowered from the calf wheel 5. The walking beam 6 is provided with the usual bifurcated end 7 and notches 8 to receive the temper screw head, and the walking beam may rest upon the end of the headache post 9 whenever expedient. 'The floor 1.0 of the derrick may support a spider 11., from which the casing may be hung. The casing section 12 may support the string of easing sections in the well, the load being carried by the spider 11. unless thestring is suspended from. the elevator through the'ca'sing section 13. This much of the appamtusdeslcribed is old and per secon'stitutesno part of my invention.

My'invention consists rather in the elevator adapted to co-operate with these known elements in such a manner as to requirenore organization of the known elements and which can operate without interfering with them.

The elevator is shown as comprising a frame consisting of two side bars 14 and 15, the ends of which are connected by shafts 16 and 17. The shaft 16 is mounted in bearings 18 and 1.9 on the side bars 14 and 15, and the shaft 17 is mounted in similar bearings 18 and 19 on the ends of the side bars 14: and 15 distant from the bearings 18 and 19. Therefore, the bars 14 and 15-and the shafts 16 and 17 provide a substantially rectangular frame. The frame is suspended by inverted, U-shaped bails 20 and 20, which have bearings 21 and 21 through which the shafts 1 6 and 17 project so that the frame can be suspended from the bails 20 and 20'. The bails are adapted to be hung on the hook 4 or a similar support.

Between the bearings on the bails and the bearings on the side bars are toggle levers. The toggle levers 22 and-23 have trunnion bearings 2 Land 25 to receive the trunnions 26 and 27 of the jaw member 28. Toggle levers 29 and 30 are carried by the shaft 17 and have trunnion bearings 31 and 32 in which are mounted the trunnions 33 and 34 of the jaw member 28. The two jaw members have half round or concave seats 35 and 36, in which are removable slips or toothed lining members 37 and 38, adapted to be secured in the jaw members'by removable set screws 39 and 10 (see Fig. 9). The side bars, the toggle levers and the jaws may be of rough casting but the insert or lining members 37 and 38 will preferably be of ma swing one toward the other because they are pivoted above the point at which the toggle levers or links 22, 23, 29 and 30 are pivoted to vthe shafts 16 and 17, and they may have a tendenc to tilt'ene with respect to the other but in order to prevent this, I provide lugs 4.1 and 4.2 on the jaw member 28 and similar lugs 4.3 and .44.- on. the jaw member The lugs 41 and 43 have aligning openings -15 and 46 and the lugs and. 4.4. have similar openings 47 and 48. All of the openings are larger than the 1.espeetive-stabiliz-- ing or position-retaining rods 49 and 50. which pass through the openings 45 and 4. 6 and 4:7 and 48 respectively. The rods- 49 and 50 will. prevent the upper edges of the aws from tilting one toward the o'ther but the rods will not lit in the openings so tight as to preventthe jaws from becoming self-seating as it is very important in the construction of an elevator that both jaws find their own seats on the periphery of the casing.

If the rods maintained the two jaws in strict parallelism, this would be a disadvanto hold them in posit-ion so that the jaws will be retained in vertical positions, the play between the rods 19 and 50 and the lugs permitting the jaws to automatically seat on the casing which they engage.

In practice I prefer to place spacing collars 51and 52 on the rods 19 and 50 between the jaws, as will be clearly seen in Fig. 4. These spacingcollars will prevent the jaws from coming: so close together that the diameters of .the' openings between them will be less than the diameter of the casing to be engaged.

An elevator for-oil well casing is essentially a heavy structure because it has to support a heavy weightand it is, therefore, difficult to pry the jaws apart by hand when .itis desired to release the casing I have, therefore, provided a novel form of jaw spreader and this is best shown in Figs.

6 and 7. The jaw spreader is shown as.

consisting'of a hand lever 53, which is pivoted on one of the bearings 18 of the side bar14 (see Figi 5). The hand lever 53 carries a' detent consisting of the link 54, connected to the swinging hand grip T- shaped lever 55 and having atone end a bolt or pawl 56 which isadapted to engage in the notch 57 in one of the bearings 18 of the side bar 1 1. The hand lever 53 car ries an angular extension or arm 58,'having a slot 59 therein and a cam edge 60 on which may ride a connecting pin 61'for two links 62 and 63 which are, in turn, connected to the jaws. Therefore, when the lever 53 is swung in the position shown in Fig. 6, the arm 58 will be swung downward, drawing the connected ends of the links 62 and 63 downward and allowing the jaws to come together. This will not be necessary ordinarily because the weight of the jaws themselves will. cause them to come together.

The diiiiculty will be in opening the jaws. Then it is necessary to swing the lever 53 in a position as shown in Fig. 7 with the arm 58 swung upwardly to cause the toggle links 62 and 63 to spread and thereby move the jaws apart, as shown in Figs. 7 and 9. The jaws will be held in the spread position by the detent or bolt 56, engaging the notch 57 in the end of. the side bar 14.

the well.

The toggle links or levers which carry the jaws are free to move about the axis of the shafts 16 and 17 so that they can readily drop into casing-engaging position, irrespective of the pull on the bails 20 and 20. In other words the toggle levers 22, 23, 29 and 30 are free to swing on the shafts 16 and 17, consequently, the jaws 28 and 28' loosely trunnioned in the links or levers will be self-seating. Since the bails are also loose onthe shafts 16 and 17, it is obvious that they can turn about the shafts when the pull of the cable 2 is to one side or the other without disturbing the jaws and since it is very important that the jaws maintain uniform contact throughout their areas with the casing, the freedom of movement of one set of elements independently of any other set will be clearly appreciated. Attention is especially directed to the fact that the construction shown permits of a compact organization which can be built of sufiicient strength to support extremely heavy strings of casing and yet be constructed within the limits made necessary by the peculiar construction of the drilling apparatus with which the elevator must operate.

When the elevator has gripped the pipe and the cable is raised by winding it on the bull wheel 5, the pipe or casing string would not be raised unless it was released from the spider. The releasing of the slips 64 in the spider 11 is well known practice and will be, well understood by those skilled'in the art.

.When the slips 6& are released, the easing can be pulled by the elevator. If the casing is being lowered, the top section 12 in the well will be held in the spider by the slip 64 but if the casing is being pulled, the section second from the top, as indicated at 12, will be secured in the spider by the slips 64. Then the elevator will be released and the top section 13 unscrewed from the collar of the section 12; The elevator will then be lowered until it grips the section 12 and raises it to the position shown in Fig. 1. The section under 12 will then be held by the slips in the spider 11 and the top section taken off. This will continue until the casing has been pulled.

In lowering the string into the well, the slips 64; will be taken out while the section 13 is held by the elevator; then the entire string can be lowered. into the well until the section 13 assumes the position shown in full lines with respect to the section 12 in Fig. 1. Then the slips will be put in place to hold the section 13 and an- .other section will be screwed into the top of 13,'the elevator will be attached to the top of it in the same manner as is shown attached to the top of the section 13, and then the string will be lowered further into This will continue until the desired amount of casing is lowered into the well.

It will be apparent from the foregoing that the device is compact, simple to operate, that the jaws will be self-seating in operation but that they may be readily sread apart and held in position to take (fiii'e-rent sizes of casing, and that since the jaws will be held in, a vertical position and not in perfect parallelism, they will readily slip over the collars of the casing either for lowering or pulling the casing and even if the pull is'to one side or the other, the jaws will still grip the casing uni formly.

What I claim and desire to secure by Lettors-Patent is:

1. A casing elevator comprising a frame consisting of side bars and transverse shafts connecting them, bails loosel mounted on the shafts for supporting the fiame, rocking levers carried by the shafts and operable to open and close independently of the movement of the bails, and elevator-casing-engaging jaw members carried by the rocking levers. I

2. A casingv elevator comprising a frame consisting of side bars and transverse shafts connecting them, bails loosely-mounted on the shafts for supporting the frame, rocking levers carried by the shafts and operable to. open and close independently of the move ment of the bails, and elevator-casing-engaging jaw members pivotallycarried by th inner ends of the rocking levers.

3. A. casing elevator comprising a frame consisting of side bars and transverse shafts connectin them, bailsconnected to the respective s iafts: for supportiinqthe frame, in wardly projecting rocking levers on the shafts o jierable to open and close independently of the movement of the bails, and pivoted jaw. members on the inner ends of the rocking levers, the bails having movement about the shafts independent. of the rocking levers and the jaw members having movement independent of the rocking levers whereby. the jaw members will be self-seating on the casing which the elevator is to support.

4, A casing; elevator comprising a frame consisting of two side bars and two transverse shafts connecting them, two links, each toward the center of the frame, pivoted casing-engaging jaws, and trunnions on the respective jaws supported by the inner ends of the rocking levers.

5. A casin elevator comprising a frame consisting 0 two side bars and two transverse shafts connecting thcm, bails secured to the shafts, rocking levers on the shafts, rookingjaw members carried by the inner ends of the rocking levers, and rods passing transversely through openings in the jaw members to hold them in vertical positions, the. diameters of the openings being greater than, the cross sectional areas of the rods.

6. A casing elevator comprising'a frame consisting of side bars and traverse shafts connecting them, bails secured to the frame, inwardly projecting rocking levers on the shafts, vertical jaw members havin swinging engagement with the'inner en s of the rocking levers, and jaw spreading means carried by the frame, the jaw spreading means comprising toggle links connected to the jaws and a swinging lever for operating the toggle links.

7 A casing elevator comprising a frame consisting of side bars and transverse shafts connecting them, bails secured to the frame, inwardly projecting rocking levers on the shafts, vertical jaw members having swinging engagement with the inner ends of the;

rocking levers, spreading means carried by the frame, the jaw spreading means comprising toggle links connected to the aws and a swinging lever for operating the v toggle links, and a detent carried by the. swinging lever for engageme t with th notch in the frame to hold the toggle links in extended position to maintain the jaws p r c In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

GEORGE KRELL. 

